5 Ways IoT In Healthcare Levels Up Patient Safety

Over 250,000 deaths occur due to medical errors each year in the US alone. Only heart disease and cancer can beat this stat. And the most shocking thing here is that these errors could easily be prevented with IoT and other advanced tech.

In this article, we’ll discuss the ways IoT solutions in healthcare improve patient safety from reactive damage control to proactive protection.

Way 1: Real-time Patient Monitoring Beyond the ICU

Remember when nurses had to manually check vital signs every few hours? Those days are rapidly becoming a matter of the past. Today’s continuous monitoring systems catch deterioration between those traditional spot-checks, when critical changes would otherwise go unnoticed.

Connected devices now extend advanced monitoring capabilities beyond intensive care units to general wards and even patients’ homes. This expanded surveillance net catches problems hours earlier than traditional methods.

Devices making this possible:

• Smart beds with embedded sensors track heart rate, respiration, and movement without attaching anything to the patient;
• Wearable patches like the VitalConnect VitalPatch monitor eight vital signs simultaneously for up to 7 days.
• Continuous glucose monitors that alert both patients and providers to dangerous blood sugar fluctuations.

Early warning systems built on these IoT devices use algorithms to detect subtle patterns that precede deterioration. Take the Rothman Index, for instance. It assesses vital signs and lab results to predict patient decline up to 24 hours earlier than traditional methods can spot potential issues.

Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center employed remote monitoring. As a result, it has led to a 36% reduction in ICU transfers. Not to mention a 21% decrease in the length of hospital stays. These metrics represent how patients avoid critical complications thanks to the new tech.

To put it to good use, though, hospitals must overcome:

• Alert fatigue: Calibrating systems to minimize false alarms while catching real problems;
• Integration hurdles: Ensuring new devices communicate with existing electronic health records.
• Workflow adaptation: Redesigning clinical protocols to incorporate continuous data streams.

You can tackle these, start with high-risk populations, involve frontline staff in implementation decisions, and use AI to filter and prioritize alerts.

Way 2: Medication Administration Safety Systems

Medication errors impact 1.5 million Americans annually and cost hospitals over $40 billion each year. Many occur during administration. The wrong drug, wrong dose, wrong patient, or wrong time.

IoT creates multiple verification checkpoints throughout the medication journey. When a nurse scans a patient’s wristband and medication, RFID/NFC technology confirms the “five rights” of medication administration in seconds. Some hospitals report a 95% reduction in administration errors after implementing these systems.

Smart infusion pumps represent another major advancement. These devices:

• Contain drug libraries with preset safety limits;
• Alert staff when dangerous dosing parameters are entered.
• Automatically document administration in the patient’s record;
• Connect with verification systems to prevent wrong-drug errors.

At Hackensack University Medical Center, smart pump implementation prevented 1,339 potential medication errors in just the first year. The system flagged dangerous doses that otherwise would have reached patients.

The most sophisticated setups create a “closed-loop” medication system:

1. Physician orders electronically;
2. The pharmacy receives and verifies.
3. Automated dispensing cabinets track inventory.
4. Bedside scanning verifies the patient and medication.
5. Smart pumps prevent dosing errors.
6. Administration automatically documents in the record.

Hospitals implementing all components typically see adverse drug events fall by 40-60%.

Way 3: Asset Management and Equipment Safety

When a nurse spends half an hour hunting for an IV pump while a patient’s medication is on hold, that’s a serious safety concern.

Research indicates that nurses typically spend around 72 minutes per shift just looking for equipment. Multiply that across all staff, and hospitals waste thousands of hours weekly that could be spent on patient care.

Real-time location systems (RTLS) using IoT sensors change this situation by:

• Tracking equipment location in real-time through facility maps;
• Monitoring utilization patterns to optimize inventory levels;
• Ensuring critical equipment stays in designated areas;
• Alerting staff to preventative maintenance needs before failures occur.

Adventist Health White Memorial reduced rental equipment costs by $1 million annually after implementing RTLS. More importantly, they decreased time-to-care metrics across departments.

Maintenance tracking shows another crucial benefit. IoT sensors monitor:

• Usage hours on critical equipment;
• Operating conditions that may indicate impending failure;
• Calibration status of sensitive instruments;
• Battery life on portable devices.

Way 4: Environmental Monitoring for Infection Control

Healthcare-associated infections affect 1 in 31 hospital patients on any given day. This leads to unnecessary suffering and billions in additional healthcare costs.

IoT technology tackles this problem from multiple angles:

Hand hygiene compliance systems use sensors at sanitizer stations and room entry points to track compliance rates. These systems have consistently shown 25-40% improvements in hand hygiene practices when implemented.

Badge sensors from companies like SwipeSense can:

• Record each hand-washing event.
• Track staff movement between rooms.
• Provide gentle reminders when protocols aren’t followed.
• Generate compliance reports by department or individual.

Environmental monitoring extends beyond hand hygiene:

• Temperature and humidity sensors ensure conditions don’t promote microbial growth;
• Particulate matter detectors monitor air quality in sensitive areas.
• Pressure differential sensors maintain proper airflow in isolation rooms.
• UV light completion sensors verify thorough disinfection procedures.

Automated cleaning verification systems using fluorescent markers and IoT-enabled UV detection have found that up to 50% of hospital surfaces may be missed during routine cleaning. These systems improve thoroughness and provide accountability.

Way 5: Operational Intelligence for Faster Emergency Response

In emergencies, minutes (sometimes seconds) determine outcomes. IoT systems provide the real-time intelligence needed to eliminate obstacles and speed critical interventions.

Emergency departments using IoT-powered patient flow systems report:

• 18-37% reductions in door-to-doctor times.
• 25% decrease in patients who leave without being seen.
• 30% improvements in satisfaction scores.

These systems work by:

• Tracking patient location throughout the care journey;
• Identifying bottlenecks as they form rather than after the fact;
• Predicting surge periods based on historical patterns and current conditions;
• Automating bed management across departments.

Staff allocation becomes proactive rather than reactive when departments use IoT data. For example, predictive systems can alert nurse managers to likely increased demand 4-6 hours before traditional staffing models would detect the need.

Implementation Roadmap

Starting your IoT patient safety journey doesn’t take ripping out all existing systems and starting over. Begin with targeted solutions that address your specific pain points:

Start Small: Consider these entry points:

• RTLS for tracking high-value equipment in one department;
• Smart pumps in high-risk areas like oncology or pediatrics.
• Environmental monitors in surgical suites or compounding pharmacies.

Infrastructure Requirements:

• Robust, secure WiFi coverage throughout clinical areas;
• Edge computing capabilities for time-sensitive applications;
• Middleware to integrate IoT data with existing systems;
• Data storage and analytics platform (cloud or on-premises).

Integration Considerations:

Ensure your IoT solutions can connect with:

• Electronic health records;
• Computerized physician order entry systems;
• Clinical decision support tools;
• Existing biomedical equipment.

Privacy and Security:

• Implement end-to-end encryption for all IoT data.
• Conduct regular security assessments of connected devices.
• Develop clear policies for data ownership and access.
• Create segmented networks to isolate IoT devices from critical clinical systems.